World of Ecromor

Giving People Trust Issues Since the Dawn of Time

"Let her go, let her go..."

Keyleth, Feryndul, and Shade made their way down the mountain in Ysgard on a quest to find a giant touched by its deity. On the way down, Feryndul attempted to gain their bearings by asking a squirrel for directions. The squirrel told Feryndul of a village located through a forest, but said that the forest had large hairy creatures in it that (sadly) had eaten many of its friends. Just then the ground began to shake, and the squirrel, obviously frightened, darted off and climbed up into a tree. Feryndul and Keyleth quickly realized what was going on: the entire snowy side of the mountain the party just travelled down was moving right towards them!

Knowing Keyleth and Shade both have the ability to move quickly, Feryndul cleverly cast Tree Stride on himself with the hope of using the trees to outrun the avalanche. Together, Keyleth and Feryndul took off… apparently leaving Shade behind! It seems Shade didn’t realize what was happening since she was still standing still, looking around to find the source of the shaking and noise.

Realizing this, Keyleth shouted back to her, “Shade, run!” Knowing her two companions wouldn’t run from just anything, Shade finally took off, running confusedly after her companions. However, while Keyleth deftly used her speed to navigate the trees, and Feryndul the very trees themselves as a means to move through the forest, Shade had trouble pushing through the snow and teleporting due to the trees blocking her line of sight. She quickly fell behind.

Just when it seemed like she had lost her party completely, and still not even knowing what she was running from, she caught a glimpse of something as she stumbled in the snow: Something huge, white, and hairy! The creature let out a roar and gave her a look that almost seemed to freeze her in place, but she was able to shake it off—just before taking a hard blow from its huge claw.

Meanwhile, Keyleth noticed that Shade had fallen behind and backtracked to try to locate her. She came upon Shade and the yeti and immediately sprang into action, landing several fearsome attacks on it. Shade used the opportunity to retreat, firing several shots of Eldritch Blast in an attempt to knock the yeti back so Keyleth could escape as well. However, the huge creature was faster than she anticipated, and it was able to easily close the gap again before Keyleth could move. The yeti, clearly upset with Keyleth for the punishment she inflicted upon it, struck Keyleth with one of its freezing glares and paralyzed her. It then followed up with its own savage attacks, as the ground continued to shake all around them…

Shade, worried about the constant, intensifying shaking and seeing Keyleth was now the one in trouble, rather uncharacteristically changed direction and headed back toward the battle. She used her shadow step ability to place herself directly between the yeti and Keyleth—but her courage was to no avail. Instead of attacking the nearest target, the creature hit them both with a blast of frigid air, almost knocking Keyleth unconscious in doing so.

Thankfully, it was about this time that Feryndul finally located the two girls, allowing him to cast a healing spell on his sister. Shade, in turn, answered the yeti’s attack by summoning a hound of ill omen to harry the creature and give her the upper hand with the Eyebite spell. As her eyes became a pool of darkness, she gave the creature her own death glare, and the creature fell into a deep sleep…

Just then, Keyleth was finally able to break free of the paralysis that had taken her, and the party took off with the wall of snow right behind them. Once again, Shade had trouble keeping up, and in a last ditch effort to escape the avalanche, she tried to cast Teleport—but the snow took her before she could complete the incantation.

Buried alive by snow and gravely injured, Shade tried to use a subtle casting of Teleport to free herself, trying her best to remember her surroundings as she tumbled in the snow. However, something went horribly wrong. Shade indeed appeared free of her icy prison, high above the snow… only to fall lifelessly 120 feet to the ground below.

When Keyleth and Feryndul both met at the edge of the forest out of reach of the avalanche they noticed there was no sign of Shade. Feryndul cast sending to try to ask if she had made it out alright. After getting no reply, he scryed on her and found her lifeless body lying in the snow. Keyleth began to backtrack on her own, figuring she could move faster, in an attempt to find Shade. It took a couple hours but she eventually found Shade’s body and made it back to Feryndul.

The two carried Shade to the village they could see in the distance. When they arrived, it was late and everyone seemed to be sleeping. They found an inn to stay in and Keyleth traded a potion for a week’s stay, as they had no electrum. When they made it to their room Feryndul got to work resurrecting Shade. When she came back though, she just didn’t seem the same.

The group all began to rest up, ready to set out the next morning in search of their giant.

The Return of Morris Holmes

Shortly before going to sleep for the night the party got a letter from Morris, telling them to meet him in Redgate.
The party awoke early the next morning to go about their business before they could teleport to Wayrest. Gilead, as promised went to the guard tower to help with the red caps. Faolán joined him and they managed to take out the remaining red caps in a few hours. Saoirse took this time to acquire components for her spells. When they had finished everything they headed to the Lion’s Den where they teleported to the headquarters in Wayrest. Saoirse went to speak with Hisspira while Faolán went to check on Lwaxana, and Gilead investigated the destroyed remains of Kormo’s mansion.
Saoirse was given a promotion to Claw Member(other party remaing Paw Members) by Hisspira and asked to let her know if they found out anything about the death of King Warton Caufield while they are in Redgate.
Faolán managed to get into the princesses room and speak to her. He discovered that she didn’t consider the King to be her father. She cryptically referred to someone else as her father and suggested that whoever it was takes care of her (i.e. slowing her fall when she jumped out of a tree).
Gilead, while examining the remains of Kormo’s mansion, came across a note that was magically disguised. The note contained a riddle which ultimately lead Gilead to find a ring that had been teleported into the mouth of the enormous black dragon head mounted in the Lion’s Den.
The group convinced Hisspira to let them use the teleportation circle to get to Redgate more quickly. Saoirse had to pay for the cost of the service but they were then teleported to the Lion’s Den in Redgate.
When they arrived Saoirse sent a message to Morris, letting him know that they were at the Lion’s Den, and to meet them there. They waited for him in the bar area of the Den. When he arrived, they caught each other up on the various details of what had been going on.
Morris had found out that not long before the King had been murdered, Irovetti Corrino had returned to the city with a drow woman and a pale, young looking girl. Morris had heard rumors that someone who looked like Lwaxana had murdered the king. Faolán tried to defend Lwaxana’s innocence, saying she was in Wayrest the whole time. Gilead and Saoirse weren’t convinced though after hearing that Lwaxana may have magic and the person who killed the King had used magic.
The group went to a bar where Morris had previously spoken to a guard who had mentioned the princess being at the scene of the crime. They spoke to one of the guards there, telling him they were from the Lion’s Den and were sent to help with the investigation. He got them access to the castle so that they could speak to the king’s personal guard, who had been there when the girl was seen. The guard was confident that the person who killed the King was not Lwaxana. He was very close with the princess and recognized the person as an impostor. He was around for Lwaxana’s birth and had watched her grow up. He mentioned that there was an angel present at her birth, who had told them a prophecy about her, and that this prophecy was why magic items were banned for the most part. He agreed to help the party investigate Irovetti, as Morris believed he had played a role in the kings murder.

Perhaps next time the group will be able to find out who the murderer was?

The King is Dead, Long Live the King

With the Festival of the Moon in full swing Gilead and Saoirse found themselves feeling a little more whimsical than normal, and Saoirse, having used Whelm for the first time, the day before, found herself suffering from agoraphobia. Despite the fact that the two of them weren’t in ideal condition they joined Faolán to find out more about this hunt.
They traveled South, out of the city to some nearby woods, now quite overgrown from how close the Feywilds were to the Material plane. They came to a small clearing with three beautiful women and five dear all in front of a large tent. In front of the tent lay the bear they had seen with the Lord of the Hunt the night before. The women were tending to the deer, brushing their coats and feeding them. In a sudden impulse Gilead decided to try to ride one of the deer. The deer wasn’t impressed by Gilead approaching so quickly so Faolán made his way over to calm down the deer. Gilead still insisted on mounting the deer, but was disappointed when it just stood there. Saoirse, seeing this happen, decided that she too would like to ride a deer. She frightened her when she approached but one of the women calmed it and asked her if she wanted to ride the deer. She excitedly climbed on and the woman lead the deer around for a little while for her to ride it.
Faolán convinced Gilead that he should dismount from his deer and come speak to the Lord of the Hunt with him but Saoirse was enjoying her ride far too much to be persuaded. Faolán and Gilead approached the tent but they were told to wait for the Lord of the Hunt to return to camp. Gilead, curious about the inside of the tent tried to send his raven inside but the bear blocking the entrance swatted it away, killing the familiar in the process.
When the Lord of the Hunt entered the camp he invited them to come inside with him and allowed Gilead to use a brazier to resummon his raven while he spoke to Faolán. Meanwhile, outside Saoirse had grown bored riding the deer and decided to go look for a tree to climb. She didn’t make it far up the tree before being overwhelmed by the agoraphobia and running back to camp and joining the others in the tent.
When the party had all the information they needed for the hunt they headed out in the direction of last known location of the ox. They traveled all day before reaching the edge of the woods and setting up camp. While camp was being set up Gilead decided he wanted to play a prank on the Lord of the Hunt who was camping nearby. He took a stone and cast a spell on it so it would repeat the same “riddle” over and over again. He had his raven drop the stone in the camp and quickly made his way back to the others.
In the morning the group woke to find the bear had come to their camp with the stone to “return” it to Gilead. They set out over the mountains to where Faolán sensed the Great Ox. They traveled until nightfall and set up camp. The next morning Faolán sensed that the Ox hadn’t moved much over night and summoned some pixies to cast fly on his party members while he wildshaped into a bird. They flew toward the Ox, and eventually saw the Lord of the Hunt ahead of them.
As the cleared the top of a mountain ridge, in the clearing below they saw their Ox. It was four stories tall and surrounded by smaller ox. There were several giants in the area, keeping watch over the beasts. Faolán told everyone to wait while he flew ahead. He tried to talk to the Great Ox but before he could make much progress the Lord of the Hunt grew impatient and fired an arrow. When Faolán still didn’t attack the Lord of the Hunt rode down into the clearing and began to fire arrows at the Ox. Faolán tried to tell the Ox to run but the Lord of the Hunt charmed him and forced him to attack. Meanwhile Gilead and Saoirse tried to take out some of the giants, much to the enjoyment of Whelm.
Ultimately, Faolán ended the battle when he summoned a sea hag, killing the frightened ox. The Lord of the Hunt began to prepare the Ox for travel. Faolán spoke to him momentarily about his father. The Lord of the Hunt had little information but gave Faolán a bowl and told him to fill it with water every morning. He would contact Faolán with it, if he heard anything about his father. They then parted ways and headed back to the city.
Back in Lightwich, the party learned that the King, Warton Caufield had been murdered. They headed back to the Brenhinol estate as it was late.Cerridwyn was relieved to see Saoirse’s safe return, after she left with no warning. And Rhosyn was happy to have her mirror returned, even if a couple days later than primised. Gilead volunteered to the city guard to help clear out the rest of the red caps. While they werw away, a letter came from the Lions Den. One of their previous employers had disappeared and his house ransacked. Faolán, urgently wants to get back to Wayrest to check on Lwaxana Caufield and be sure she is safe. Meanwhile, Morris is believed to be headed to Redgate, where the King was killed.
Being pulled is so many different directions, what will the party do?

And an invite from the Lord of the Hunt

Upon completing their mission at White Plume Mountain the group decided that they wanted to take a couple days of rest. Gilead uses this time to study the spell scrolls that had been found in the dungeon, while Faolán acquainted himself with some of the etiquette of noble society. Saoirse, meanwhile, was just pleased to get to spend some time with her long-lost family. Baram had left, a little disheartened, after Blackrazor decided it no longer needed him. The party still hadn’t heard anything from Morris but chose to stick to their original plans of celebrating the Festival of the Moon and Lightwich.
The group was all relaxing when suddenly strange things started to happen. Gilead found himself suddenly unable to open his mouth without pink bubbles flowing forth. Faolán found himself suddenly able to teleport, similarly to how Gilead uses his misty step spell. Saoirse suddenly started hearing music coming from, seemingly, nowhere. In the same room as Saoirse, Neifion had lighting shooting uncontrollably from his hands.Urien Brenhinol realized what was going on and announced to everyone that the Festival had officially begun and suggested that they go out in the city and enjoy the celebration. Every met up in front of the house, and set out towards the market district to see what fun they could find.
After traveling a short distance into the docks, en route to the market district they came across a dead body in an alley, just off the main road. There were red mushrooms growing out of the blood coming from the body. The group, unsure what to make of the mushrooms, burned them, just in case. A guard found them with the body but after Saoirse rattled off some medical jargan believed they weren’t responsible for the death and agreed to take the body to a temple.
Further along they came across a group of people dancing around a pile of swords. Gilead, upset to see humans ruining the festival tried to break up the group. They saw his rapier and all tried to steal it. The party had to fight off the crowd, subduing them until they were in their right minds. Gilead, while defending himself, accidentally broke his rapier. The crowd suddenly lost interest after his sword broke and went back to what they had been doing.
Saoirse mended his sword, while he ritually casted Leomund’s Tiny Hut around the swords so people would grow bored and leave them. While performing his ritual, Faolán, in spider form, webbed the people that had been knocked out to slow them down when they came to. Before finishing his ritual the group saw a man who looked elven, but with big horns on his head, walk through the square with a giant bear. Gilead recognized him as the Lord of the Hunt. The party was busy at the time and decided not to get involved.
After Gilead completed his ritual, the people, that hadn’t been knocked out, lost interest and left. The party then moved the swords into a nearby house where they hoped they would be left alone. When they were done they decided that they wanted to see if they could find the Lord of the Hunt. They took off in the direction he had headed but didn’t make it far before finding themselves in a fight with red caps. In the middle of the battle suddenly a huge thunder cloud moved in overhead. A bolt of lightning struck right by the party, leaving behind an unusual creature. The creature, appeared to want to help them fight the red caps. When they finally took out all the red caps they were exhausted, and a little fed up with the festival. They decided to head back to the Brenhinol estate, and their new friend tagged along, claiming that’s he liked Saoirse, because she smelled like lightning.
Once the group got back to the estate Saoirse decided to go looking for a mirror she could use to scry on the Lord of the Hunt, still being curious about him. She found something she could use in Rhosyn’s room. She left a note, promising to return it by morning and took it down into the library to use it. When she scryed on the Fey Lord she suddenly saw him look right at her and take off, as though to come and gone her. She told the others and cast a spell to be able to detect if there were fey nearby and sensed that he was already on the estate. The group ran out to the gardens to see if they could spot him. Gilead used his raven to look from above and saw him coming right at them on a spectral horse. They hid behind some trees and bushes and waited.
The Lord of the Hunt walked through the trees and asked them to show themselves. Faolán stepped out and began talking to him. Faolán told Saoirse and Gilead to come out too and they begrudgingly obliged. The Lord of the Hunt invited Faolán to join him in a hunt the following day. He told them to meet him South of the city if they were interested and parted ways.
What exactly will this hunt entail? And will the party take part in it?

At least we survived

With Blackrazor in hand, the party made their way back toward the area of the dungeon with the sphinx. They took the middle path this time which lead forward to a room filled with water. They noticed a path going around the outside of the room and decided to follow it. Suddenly, Baram and Saoirse were grappled by the kelp creatures in the middle of the room. They attempted to fight them off but were both dragged under the water. Luckily for them, Faolán had cast water breathing on the party earlier that day so they were a-okay. The group worked together to take out the two kelp monsters with much less stress, thanks to Faolán. After killing the kelp the party takes a short rest on the stairs leading out of the room.
At the top of the stairs is a hallway leading forward and a door immediately to their right. They open the door to see what’s down there but ultimately decide to go forward where there are three consecutive doorways. Beyond the third door is a room. The walls of the room are made up of some kind of weird skin that creates a bubble inside of what appears to be a lake. They enter the bubble and are immediately thrown into another fight with a giant crab. The party begins to fight. Faolán, just before the crab dies, polymorphs it into a smaller, normal sized crab, immediately ending the battle. Saoirse loots the chest, acquiring Wave, and a variety of other treasure. The party begins to leave, but Baram decides to hold back for a moment and kills the giant crab after Faolán drops his polymorph on it.
The party then heads back to where the sphinx sits again before heading down the right, and final, path. the path forks again and the party goes left (as if we ever choose anything else) and through a door to a room with 5 golems. The golems ask a riddle which, when answered correctly, allowed the party to have one of the golems as a companion for the rest of the dungeon.
From the room with the Golems the party came across a hallway. In the middle of this long hallway was a turnstile. They walked through the turnstile and proceeded onward through the hallway to a room with chains hanging from the ceiling with discs at the ends of them. Faolán summoned some Pixies to cast fly on the Golem and the rest of the party to get across the chains, as the Golem wouldn’t be out of make it across on its own. When the party was midway across a geyser suddenly spewed up into the air, narrowly missing the party. They made it across to the other side and then continued on down another hallway that led to a pitch-black room.
Saoirse cast the light cantrip so that they could see where they were going just in time for the party to see a vampire rise out of a coffin in front of them. The vampire promptly attacked the party and everyone defended themselves in turn. Saoirse, questioning if they would even be able to defeat a vampire, ran forward and examined the coffin to see if she could find Whelm and any other treasure within. After a quick search she found Whelm and several other magic items including spell scrolls. The party tried their best to fight the vampire but in the end they weren’t strong enough and they fled, leaving the Golem blocking the door to try to protect themselves for as long as they could. The party attempted to make their way across the hanging chains again. Gilead flew, as did Faolán. Baram made it across with relative ease but Saoirse fell about halfway across. Gilead managed to save her before hitting the bottom.
The party continue to run down the path, when they were attacked by bats the vampire had summoned. After getting past the bats they came across the turnstile and had to find a way through it. Faolán magically moved the stone alongside the turnstile so that they could squeeze through between the wall and the bars of the turnstile. They continue to run until they escaped the dungeon.
They decided it was in their best interest to return to the village that night and board their boat to sail back to the city of Lightwich. Now with all three weapons in hand they were able to complete their quest. Saoirse decided while on the ship to see if she would be able to attune to Whelm. Thanks to her connection to Marthammor Duin, the hammer agreed to let her use it, much to her father’s surprise upon returning the stolen weapons to the her family in Lightwich.
The party still needs to return to Hisspira now that they have completed their job but before that they have decided to stick around and enjoy the Festival of the Moon in Lightwich. What wonders with this festival hold?

That could have gone smoother.

After the ordeal or being abducted and sold to a mindflayer, Morris Holmes decided it was time to confront Irovetti, the man behind his capture. The rest of the party decided it was best if they completed the job given to them by Hisspira and made way to the Lion’s Den in Lightwich to hire someone to help them complete the job. They ultimately ended up hiring Baram, who proved to be a skilled warrior.
The party set sail aboard their new ship, Valhalla’s Grace, toward their destination. They made port in a small village before making their way to the mountain. It was a straightforward trudge from the village to the foot of the mountain. They managed to find an entrance will relative ease as well, though this wouldn’t be easy much longer. The party entered through a cavern on the side where plumes of smoke billowed out over regular intervals. They decided to quickly enter between clouds to avoid any potential harm. They made their way down a set of stairs to a hallway that lead to magical barrier, where a sphinx awaited. The sphinx demanded they answer a question before they could proceed past the barrier. Gilead was able to answer the riddle easily and the barrier fell, allowing them to proceed.
Beyond the barrier was a fork with three paths. The party took the path to the left and followed it to a hallway with metal plates lining the walls. When they tried to walk through it began to grow very hot and Saoirse’s armor began to burn her. She coated the metal plates in ice before proceeding forward to the next room where the group was waylaid by ghouls. They fought off the ghouls before moving onward to another hallway. It had a pitfall with a bit of ground between, followed by another pitfall. Faolán wild shaped into a spider to investigate and found that the middle bit of ground was so slippery that even as a spider he couldn’t get any traction on it. He build a giant web over the second pitfall to catch people, allowing everyone to jump over the first pit and slide across to the second. They then were able to climb out of the web. They exited the hall through a door that lead to another hallway. It had a path going left and one going right. The party chose to go left (as usual) and found a room with a stream floating through the middle of it and some boats on the grounds. Unsure what to do here they decided to go find out what was in the other direction. They followed the hallway to a room that could only be described as an inverted ziggurat. The first level of the ziggurat contained water with giant crayfish (crawfish, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, mudbugs or yabbies). Gilead, letting his curiosity get the better of him, held his hand over the water to see how they would react and was immediately grappled by one and pulled underwater. Saoirse jumped in after him but before she could reach him he teleported into the next level down of the ziggurat, which was filled with giant scorpions. From here, chaos ensued.
Gilead ended up being stung by one of the scorpions, leaving him more injured than he would have expected. The rest of the party was unable to get to him through the aquarium level with the crayfish so Saoirse shattered the glass, flooding the terrarium with water and crayfish. Faolán and Saoirse joined Gilead in the terrarium level (which was no longer really a terrarium with all that water), but before the group could take out the various adversaries, Gilead was stung again and dropped unconscious. Saoirse was able to make her way to him and heal him up before they began to try to flee further into the ziggurat. Saoirse shattered the glass between their level and the aquarium level below them, causing water to overflow into the middle of the ziggurat, leaving the terrarium level now water free. In the water below were some giant green seals, and in the middle of the ziggurat, now flooded, two manticore rose up. After a long, arduous battle the party eventually took out all the various creatures trying to kill them and Gilead cast Leomund’s Tiny Hut so that they could get some sleep.
All throughout the night, various creatures (8 bugbears, 5 ogres, 2 gargoyles and a wight) came into the room, curious about the opaque orb set up in the corner. When morning came the party had no other options but to quickly swim down the middle of the ziggurat and hope to find safety beyond it. As the spell dissipated the party quickly dashed for the bottom of the ziggurat and Saoirse dispelled the barrier on the door at the bottom causing the water to burst through and flood down a drain beyond the door. The only creature to attempt to follow them immediately was the wight which was attacked by the seals, which the party had left alive. While the water was draining Saoirse cast control water and caused a whirlpool until the water was all drained, ultimately killing anything that entered the water. When the water was finally drained Saoirse dispelled the barrier over the door before them in the hallway.
They entered the room to find an elaborately decorated chamber, with a doughty halfling lounging inside. Gilead begins to examine the unusual, ever burning hookah in the room, while the others just sort of wait for him to finish his ritual casting of identify on it. Faolán asks the halfling lots of questions before coming to the conclusion that there is something unusual about him and upon Gilead finishing his spell has Saoirse flood the room. Baram who happened to notice a black sword under the cushions of the divan quickly dashes to grab it as the room begins to flood. The halfling suddenly changes shape into an oni and the party is forced to fight him in the flooded room. The oni uses his various abilities to try to keep himself alive throughout the fight but even upon turning invisible Saoirse manages to sense him swim past her and the party overcomes the oni.
Saoirse drops the water and Gilead hurries to find the magic piece from the hookah in hopes of one day replicating the ever burning hookah. The party takes a short rest before carrying on in the dungeon but during the rest Baram attunes to Blackrazor, telling the party that it has some “convincing arguments.”
The party has managed to just survive the first part of White Plume Mountain, but with two weapons left to acquire they still have a ways to go.

Avoiding dealing with death slaads

After finding out about Shade’s lineage the elves decided they needed to protect Shade from whatever the Bakelett family had planned for her. Keyleth sent a quick message to Shara, with help from Feryndul,about what they had found out about the Bakelett family before using her Well of Many Worlds to open a portal out of their room. Before they could find out what plane was through the portal a giant demon made out of bones came through the portal and began to attack the party. As they defended against the demon another creature suddenly stepped through. The angel that stepped through told the demon to stand down and sent it back through the portal before apologizing to the party and inviting them through. The portal had opened up into his home in the Borderlands and he invited the party to rest there. When he did, suddenly beds appeared in the room for them to sleep in.
In the morning, Keyleth went looking for the angel to thank him for his hospitality and ask if he knew how they could get hold of a tuning fork for the Borderlands so they could plane shift there with Feryndul’s spell instead of the Well. He agreed to give them one of they could retrieve something for him. He asked for the heart of a frost giant, touched by it’s deity. They agreed and started to set up ways to retrieve the item. First, they needed a way to get back to the Borderlands. They set out to create a sanctuary to teleport back to.
They chose the lair of a coven of hags. They defeated the witches and Feryndul cast the sanctuary spell to devote the area to his deity. The next day they sought out someone who could begin creating a teleportation circle for them so they could have a more permanent way of returning there. They eventually found someone who agreed to reside at the new temple for the next year and cast the spell every day until the circle was permenant.
They were then able to continue on to a bar where Shade had seen a couple giants and found out that they could get the party to giant that had been touched by it’s deity. She had told them that she had a friend who wanted to prove herself by defeating that giant. When the party got to the bar the giants agreed to bring them to the touched giant if Keyleth could impress them the arena.
Deathward had been placed on Keyleth and her opponent but with her new found skill, quivering palm, she killed the opponent within a matter of seconds. The whole crowd was left confused and in amazement at what had happened. The giants, impressed with Keyleth’s skills brought them to a door that lead to another plane and told them that through the door they would find what they sought.
The three stepped through and found themselves in the bitter cold, snow covered lands of Ysgard. All that’s left to do now is find their giant, and hope they can defeat it.

Mindflayers and Intellect Devourers and Dueregar, oh my!

Taking The Night Off
The party decided to take a rest for the night at Saoirse’s family estate. While most of the party slept, Saoirse chose to stay up all night reuniting with her family. When the party eventually regrouped for breakfast Gilead noticed that he hadn’t seen Morris since the night before. The help that had seen him to his chambers led the group to his room. When they knocked there was no reply so Saoirse sent the help to get the key to the room. Faolán, not feeling like waiting, wild shaped into a spider and crawled under the door to find the room empty and the bed left unmade.
Faolán let the rest of the group in and they began to search the room for clues as to where the investigator might have gone. The trunk with his belongings was empty and there were foot prints on the ground outside his second story window. Deciding they needed to follow the trail, everyone donned their armor and made their way to meet at the trail.

On The Trail
The party meets up below Morris’ window in order to better examine the foot prints. Faolán, using another wild shape, turns into a dog and leads the way. They follow the trail with ease until they make it off the estate and into bustling city streets. They lose the trail momentarily but manage to overhear two men discussing something suspicious. Gilead decides to eavesdrop on their conversation to see if they can pick up anymore information. When he feels he has enough information the party follows them to a building. They sneak into the place with little resistance but are left a little frazzled when they reach a hallway where they find themselves under the effects of a silence spell. They try to pick the lock on the door but due to Saoirse’s exhaustion from being up all night she fails miserably at the attempt.
They step outside, where they can hear, to plan their next course of action. Saoirse first attempts to bash open the door, again failing. Gilead decides to take matters into his own hands and blasts the handle off the door with a firebolt, finally gaining them access to the other side. Upon walking through the threshold of the door they can suddenly hear again. Gilead, sending his arcane eye ahead sees that the people inside heard their entrance and are ready to attack. He teleports right into the middle of the room while Saoirse and Faolán run in. They fell their adversaries quickly, leaving a few who managed to escape and sparing the leader to question. They find out that Morris has already been taken on the Smiling Lily to another locations.

At The Docks
The party makes their way to the docks to find out where Morris was taken, deciding to speak to the Dockmaster first. The Dockmaster eventually, after some persuasion, reveals that the Smiling Lily is a slave ship and has likely gone to Slavers Island. With this information they now need a boat. With the help of Gilead they find out that the Brenhinol family owns a ship and they are able to locate it with relative ease as it is the only ship in the docks with the Brenhinol family crest. They approach a sailor from the shop and inform them that they will need the ship. The sailor originally mistakes Saoirse for her twin sister, Cerridwyn, and upon finding out that she is not, decides to go get the captain. The captain of the ship remembers mention of a twin many years ago and accepts that she is indeed that twin. The captain offers use of his own ship, which is much smaller than the Brenhinol family’s ship. They make haste towards Slaver’s Island and ready themselves to save Morris.

Meanwhile with Morris
While the rest of the party is attempting to catch up, Morris is already at Slaver’s Island. He is bound and gagged with none of his gear. His captor leads him off the ship to a nearby cave where he is sold to a mindflayer. He is put into a room with several other prisoners and some Dueregar who are keeping watch.

At Slaver’s Island
The party eventually makes it to the Island and Faolán, once again in dog form, begins to follow Morris’ trail. They follow a path that eventually ends at the mouth of a cave. The cave entrance is guarded by two men. The party attempts to convince them that they are there to purchase a slave. Meanwhile, inside Morris is bound and gagged and he watches as a mindflayer begins to eat the brains out of one of his fellow captives. Deciding he doesn’t particularly want his brain to be eaten he begins to feign choking. The mindflayer stops eating and gestures to one of the Duergar. The Duergar removes Morris’ gag and tries to stop him from choking. Morris takes advantage of his situation and dimension doors out of the cave, a short ways behind the rest of the party. Gilead cuts him loose and when Morris tells them there are more prisoners inside Gilead and Faolán immediately prepare themselves for battle. Saoirse hearing foot falls coming out of the cave towards them casts a spell causing a strong gust of wind to push back anyone in front of her coming out of the cave, sending the guard flying backwards into the cave. Morris, while invisible and Gilead, with his blade song, run into the cave. Faolán changes shape into a giant elk and makes his way in as well. Morris in the chaos of the battle is attacked by an intellect devourer and left as a mindless husk. The party eventually takes down all but the mindflayers, who manages to escape.
When Saoirse finally drops her spell, they find Morris in his miserable state, and many other prisoners in similar condition. They save the prisoner’s, bringing them all back to the dock. They aren’t able to fit everyone on their ship though and must find somewhere for the fourteen victims of the intellect devourer. They convince the crew of a Slaver’s ship called Valhalla’s Grace to transport them back to Lightwich. Faolán flies ahead to alert the temple that they will need priests at the docks to help, and they have the captain who brought them over retrieve the city guard when he arrives ahead of them.

Back In The City
The party finally makes it back to Lightwich but the crew on their ship notice that there are guards at the docks. Not wanting to get arrested they tell the party to take the skiff and use it to get everyone to shore. With some manipulation they got the captain (who was only captain because they left the real captain back on Slaver’s Island) below deck and locked him up. They convinced the rest of the crew to take them to shore.
Upon arrival at the docks the captain was arrested and the rest of the crew agreed to work for the party in exchange for their freedom, therein giving the party their own ship.
After this delay the party now must decide if they are heading onto White Plume Mountain or sticking around Lightwich for the festival. And what will Morris do about his captor?

..That little shit.

To Slaad, or Not To Slaad
Last time, the siblings had just ran after Food; The Unusual before he began to fly away. Keyleth had a good look at the creature that was revealed through her Crystal Ball of Truesight and recognized it from her studies long ago. This creature was a slaad.

Frustrated, they decide they need to do a little research to be sure what they are about to try and chase down. During this time however, they were told that the Bakelett that was still around in Ithlondoth(the capitol city of the country where Terental is located), and they were currently pulling resources to find something or someone. Keyleth and Feryndul were encouraged to seek out the Bakelett family and see if they could determine what they were trying to find. Shade was a little more keen to find the slaad.

Adventures in the Outlands
The Elves spy again on the escaped creature to determine if is even in a place they know and can get to. They only saw the creature in some food stores and consuming everything around. Unable to determine where to go for him, the siblings decide to pay a visit to the Bakelett family to determine what they are up to. Shade‘s “failed” attempt at a teleport left them all on a mountain so instead they found a flat portion on the mountain and used the Well of Many Worlds. With it’s use, they suddenly found themselves in the Outlands beneath the city of Sigil. They eventually made their way up to the city and found an eclectic city with devils, angels, giants and humans all in one place.

They spend a small bit of time here before moving on with another Plane Shift by Feryndul and end up just outside of Ithlondoth, south of Terental. They arrived in the late afternoon and decided to find an inn to stay for the night. Shade then took some time to seek out a contact to “gather information” about what the Bakelett family was up to. This slightly backfired on her however and they began to chase her. She went invisible and moved away without being caught and then returned to the siblings. The family’s agents then moved to see the Elves at the inn indicating that it was too coincidental that they arrived in the same day as Shade.

Food? Is that you?

The Mission, Simple. The Task, Impossible
So Shade, Keyleth and Feryndul take a week to clear themselves of the excessive amount of negative energy they were just in before having to go back down to try and further disrupt whatever the ritual was. They determined that they will need to bring the Amulet found on the Emperor and use it to help break up the ritual area.

Scrying first, they saw the ritual chamber was filled with dancing ghouls and a dancing skeleton whom Shade had seen before. With a careful use of Shade’s teleportation, they get get into the chamber right behind the dancing jester and push him into the renewed well of necrotic energy. Feryndul turned/destroyed undead and got rid of quick a few of them before Shara moved the sphere and annihilated several more. The rest of the battle goes by fairly easily and they then set out to fortify the room against any further entry so that Feryndul could perform a Hallow spell.

Food, The Unusual
The spell Feryndul is casting takes a whole 24 hours to perform so they had to basically endure a siege upon the room. Several hours in they could here banging on the stone that Shade had created at both of the entry ways to the room. Things seemed to be going alright but towards the end of the time, it seemed like the undead on the outside might have been making progress in hacking through the stone blocking their way. So in order to ensure the ritual could complete uninterrupted, Shade forwent her long rest to perform the spells again to ensure the ghouls don’t make it through before Feryndul completes his spell. To throw a bit of a wrench into the mix, suddenly Food teleported into the chamber as Feryndul finished casting the spell. They used Keyleth’s Well of Many Worlds to get out of the ritual chamber since Feryndul added a silencing effect to the hallowed ground.

They ended up on the Elemental Plane of Air before Feryndul immediately cast Plane Shift to get back to Lyannor. It was back at the haven that Feryndul had a moment to ponder on Food and trolls in general. It was then that he realized that there is more to Food than meets the eye. He then suggested to Keyleth to scry on Food and see what happens. To her surprise, she was peering into the kitchen area where Food was shoveling food into his mouth but it didn’t look a troll sitting at the table. It was instead a gray spiked creature that immediately heard when Keyleth whispered through her sending stone to Feryndul. Shade was lounging in a different room and oblivious to all this of course.

Food went invisible again and exited the house. Keyleth attempted to following by watching through the crystal ball but it then started to fly. When Keyleth tried calling him back he replied in her mind and not with the usual “dumb” voice, “It is too late now.” Whatever shall they do next time?